In tough times

One needs to look at new ventures.

British Music Experience

Post a Partnerships Conference at the O2 Arena last Friday I took an hour out to visit The British Music Experience (BME) a permanent, high-tech, interactive music experience. The experience offers a combination of audio-visual interactivity and an exhibition of the most amazing array of music memorabilia from decades of great British Music.

Although predominantly an interactive exhibition where you can scroll through years of music, video clips, stories and images of your favourite artists, explore the continual invention of how we listen to music or search across a giant interactive music map of Great Britain, there’re also infamous key pieces of British music memorabilia featured including David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes clown suit and Ziggy Stardust costume, Noel Gallagher’s Union Jack guitar, Roger Daltrey’s Woodstock outfit and a vintage Amy Winehouse dress. (courtesy of BME site).

A very enjoyable experience for any fan of great British music.

RSW Blog

Loving this article on RSW's Blog. my sentiments exactly. 

International Confex 2009

I was asked to give a Keynote about Experiential Marketing at this years International Confex. The premise was to offer insight into, what Experiential is?, how to do it? and why do it?

It was a very enjoyable session attended by over 100 delegates and I was very pleased to be joined on stage by Max Willey from Continental Research. Continental measured and evaluated our most recent campaign for Nivea and captured some incredibly powerful data that advocated what was an awesome campaign. 

I would be happy to share some of the insight with any brands that still don't believe the power of Experiential Marketing.

About Continental...Continental Research is a full service market research company offering the full range of research services both in the UK and Internationally. Continental offers market research solutions to all kinds of marketing problems, but has specific expertise in media and advertising. Over the last seven years it has measured recall and effectiveness of over 50 experiential marketing campaigns for an exciting array of clients both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results have been universally positive for a huge array of categories including alcololic drinks, pharmacutical, electronics, and FMCG. Continental is proud to consider itself experts in this exciting field.

London Word Festival

So you think literature and literary events are dull affairs... well take a look at The London Word Festival which starts this Saturday and runs for 18 days in total and takes place in unique venues across the East End. There is something for everyone, Music, Poetry, Film and Comedy.

Superstar DJ's Here We Go!

Remember the hands in the air and the days when DJ's earned £150,000 a night (some still do mind). Well, after I have put my son to bed and cooked a nice meal this Friday night (the times have a changed!) I intend to sit down and read Dom Philips former editor of Mixmags Superstar DJ's Here We Go and hope that it delivers as much as Kill Your Friends did.

Ave it...

One and Other

I have been a big fan of Mr. Anthony Gormley since his project Field back in 1991 and his man-figures that have dominated landscapes and cityscapes in recent years. I find his work mesmerizing and his recent man-figures across the London Skyline were truly stunning.

Well yet again Mr. Gormley is going to grab our attention with his living art project One & Other for Trafalgar Squares 4^th Plinth.

This summer, sculptor Antony Gormley invites you to help create an astonishing living monument. He is asking the people of the UK to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, a space normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals. They will become an image of themselves, and a representation of the whole of humanity.

To me, although it is art it is also is a stunning Live Event that is putting the public right at the heart of the experience and is a superior example of engaging the public in a spectacle, on the other hand there are some very poor variants doing the rounds, such as the really poor T-Mobile Ad, in which they had professional dancers perform in a train station and then tried to convince us that this was some kind of Flash Mob scenario!